In Part One of this series, we saw that when a team commits to rebuilding its offensive line, good things can happen.

Now we’ll see what can happen to a team which does not make a commitment to its o-line.

Since the year 2000, the Tennessee Titans have selected 41 players in the first three rounds of the draft. Only one of those 41 players was an offensive lineman (Michael Roos, second round, 2005.) To phrase that in a slightly different way, the Titans have committed only 2% of their top resources to address that position group.

The results of the Titans’ repeated and continuous neglect of the line can be seen in the charts following the jump.

These rankings are by Adjusted Line Yards from Football Outsiders, which measure o-line run blocking.

That should clearly illustrate that the Titans have not had a top ten run-blocking line for the last ten years. Five times they were mediocre, middle of the road. Five times they were in the bottom tier. Disturbingly, they’ve been in the bottom ranks three years in a row, including 31st two years ago and worst in the league last year.

Next are the rankings in a different format, where you can see where each team ranked for each of the last ten years. This chart is sorted by best (highest average ten-year ranking) to worst.

I also ran two additional sorts, in five year increments, 2002-06 and 2007-11. After looking at the two charts above, you won’t be surprised by the Titans’ rankings in either of the five-year windows.

2002-2006 Football Outsiders run-blocking rankings

Rank

Team

Avg Rk

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

1

KC

5.6

5

3

3

2

15

2

DEN

7.8

1

9

8

3

18

3

IND

8.2

28

5

2

1

5

4

WAS

10.6

4

13

17

5

14

5

MIN

11.2

2

1

9

31

13

28

TEN

21.6

16

30

14

20

28

29

DAL

22.8

31

25

26

22

10

30

CLE

25.4

23

19

30

24

31

31

DET

26.0

30

32

22

14

32

32

ARI

26.8

19

31

29

32

23

2007-2011 Football Outsiders run-blocking rankings

Rank

Team

Avg Rk

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

1

NE

2.4

1

3

5

1

2

2

NO

4.4

7

6

2

6

1

3

HOU

8.2

8

10

15

4

4

4

NYJ

8.6

23

2

8

3

7

5

DAL

10.4

14

14

3

12

9

27

TEN

22.2

11

15

22

31

32

28

KC

24.8

31

29

30

5

29

29

CHI

25.4

30

25

19

29

24

30

SEA

26.0

29

27

27

28

19

31

STL

28.0

28

28

28

26

30

32

DET

29.0

22

31

29

32

31

There you have it. The Titans have been one of the worst run-blocking teams in the league for the last ten years. They haven’t drafted offensive linemen in the first three rounds and they haven’t been able to coach up the ones they drafted in later rounds, as Tom wrote here.